The Press Complaints Commission has rejected a complaint that the Daily Telegraph intruded on the privacy of Vicky Pryce by publishing a picture of her in prison. It further rejected a complaint that the publication amounted to harassment.

The complaints, made by Pryce's daughters, Alexandra and Georgia, concerned a picture carried on the Telegraph's website on 20 March and in the print edition the following day.

It showed Pryce walking in the grounds of East Sutton Park open prison, in Kent, when she was serving a sentence after being convicted of perverting the course of justice.

The daughters had contacted the PCC about the presence of photographers outside the prison. The commission then circulated a private advisory notice to editors about the women's concerns and their wish that photographers should desist from taking such photographs.

They regarded the publication of the pictures as an intrusion into Pryce's private life. In their view, the newspaper's intention was to embarrass her.

The Telegraph denied that Pryce had a reasonable expectation of privacy where she had been photographed or that there had been any harassment.

It said that there was nothing intrusive about showing a person serving a custodial sentence walking in the grounds of a prison. The picture had been taken by an agency photographer from a public pathway. Pryce was "in a place where she was visible to both other prisoners and members of the public".

In these circumstances, the commission concluded that it "could not agree" that the location was private. It "acknowledged that the complainants felt the newspaper was trying to humiliate their mother" but noted that her trial, conviction and imprisonment had been the subject of widespread coverage and remained a matter of legitimate public interest.

The photograph had been taken before the advisory notice had been circulated and the complainants had not provided any information to suggest that a request to desist had been made at the site or that the photographer had engaged in "intimidation, harassment, or persistent pursuit of Ms Pryce".

The commission concluded that the photograph had not, therefore, been taken in circumstances of harassment.